Contents tagged with Smolensk air crash

  • Poland seeks arrest of Russian air traffic controllers linked to President Kaczynski's plane crash

    The investigative team of the Polish National Prosecutor's Office appealed to the District Court of Warsaw with a request for the temporary arrest of three Russian air traffic controllers who were working at Smolensk airport when the plane carrying Polish President Lech Kaczynski crashed in 2010, a spokeswoman for Poland’s National Prosecutor's Office, told Polskie Radio.

    "The investigation team of the Prosecutor General's Office appealed to the district court of the Warsaw-Mokotow district …

  • Poland: President Kaczynski’s plane was destroyed by 2 explosions

    Experts of the Polish commission, which is investigating the plane crash near Smolensk in 2010, which killed 96 people, including the country's President Lech Kaczyński, have revealed new details of the incident.

    The Commission, which is led by former Polish Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, has published an interim report alleging that two explosions in the left wing and central part of the plane were the cause of the crash.

    According to the Commission, this is evidenced by the nature of …

  • Poland again demands that Russia return wreckage of presidential airliner which crashed near Smolensk

    Poland again demands that Russia return the wreckage of the presidential airliner Tu-154, which crashed near Smolensk in 2010. The corresponding diplomatic note was sent to Moscow, the Polish Foreign Ministry said on Friday, April 10. "There is no rule of international law that gives Russia grounds to hold Polish property," the Polish Foreign Minister stressed.

    Warsaw has honored the victims of the plane crash. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the Chairman of the ruling Law and …

  • Russia agrees to grant Poland access to Kaczynski’s aircraft

    Russia announced that it will allow Polish investigators to examine the wreckage of a Polish plane that crashed near Smolensk in 2010, an incident that killed Poland’s then-President Lech Kaczynski and the members of the official delegation heading to the events marking the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre.

    According to the information published on the website of the Russian Federation Investigative Committee, access to the aircraft wreckage will be granted at the end of May.

    "At the …

  • Poland: cause of ex-Polish President Kaczynski’s plane crash near Smolensk was an explosion

    The cause of ex-Polish President Lech Kaczyński’s plane crash near Smolensk was an explosion, said the chairman of the subcommittee on the re-investigation of the Smolensk disaster Antoni Macierewicz.

    He confirmed once again that the crash of the Tu-154M in April 2010 was not caused by a pilot error or the actions of other people on board. Doing so, he referenced the British Forensic Explosives Laboratory experts who had analyzed more than 200 samples given to them by the Polish National …

  • Poland finds traces of explosives on Kaczynski crash victims

    The Polish commission to investigate the Tu-154 airplane catastrophe over Smolensk, which killed then Polish President Lech Kaczyński, said that it has found traces of explosive substances on the body of one of the crash victims. This was announced in a communique from the Polish investigators, as cited by the Polish Press Agency.

    According to the Polish investigators, explosive substances were also found “on many fragments” of the plane. However, no traces of it were found on the ground at …

  • Poland: Smolensk air disaster was caused by an explosion onboard the aircraft

    The cause of death for members of the government delegation that crashed near Smolensk in 2010 was an explosion that occurred aboard the Tu-154M plane, as stated by Antoni Macierewicz, Chairman of the Sub-commission on the investigation of the Smolensk disaster and former Polish National Defense Minister, during a live broadcast on the TV channel TVP1.

    "The passengers were killed by an explosion in the center wing before colliding with the ground. This [explosion] was their cause of death," …

  • Polish President Duda: Smolensk air disaster and aggression against Ukraine complicate relations with Russia

    In an interview with PAP news agency which took place on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the plane crash in which Polish President Lech Kaczyński, Polish President Andrzej Duda stated that the Smolensk plane crash and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine are the main causes of complicated Polish and Russian relations.

    "These are complicated relations. On the one hand, there is the Smolensk case, the issue of the return of debris that we should think about a lot. But it is not only the …

  • Smolensk air disaster investigator: it is likely that explosives were planted on President Kaczynski’s plane in Russia

    Polish statesman Antoni Macierewicz, the chairperson of a special commission that was formed to investigate the deadly crash of the Tu-154M plane near Smolensk, Russia, in 2010 and took lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski and members of the Polish governmental delegation, has stated that the explosives could not have been placed on the plane in Warsaw.

     “We do not suspect that the explosive was planted during that time at the airport. There is no such suspicion. We’ve run forensic tests …

  • Poland reasserts its demand for the return of the Presidential Tu-154M plane wreckage from Russia

    Poland says that Russia has no more reasons to hold on to the wreckage of the Presidential Tu-154M plane that crashed near Smolensk in 2010. According to the Polish press service department, this was stated by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland Jacek Czaputowicz during a meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Andreyev.

    “The head of Polish diplomacy emphasized that Russia has no basis for further retention of the governmental plane wreckage and [the Ambassador] expects it to be returned.” …